The new railway bridge at 'The Ocean'

Helena had to get to a special ‘holiday’ job in Stonehouse, about five miles away to the west of Stroud, so she asked me to drive her. Luckily the job didn’t begin  until 9-30am. After dropping her off I thought I’d grab the opportunity to visit the Stroudwater canal close to Newtown Bridge, where I’d watched a kingfisher hunting from low hanging tree branches this time last year.

It was a bright day but on the towpath there was little to see, other than four juvenile swans all jostling with each other and a mallard duck, which seemed to be the centre of their attention, if not their ire. No kingfishers though.

I asked a dog walker if she’d seen kingfishers on this stretch recently but she said she hadn’t but ’there is one I see at The Ocean regularly’. This I knew about as do most bird watchers in Gloucestershire because it is reported endlessly on local bird spotting websites and on local Facebook groups. Despite that I decided I’d park near to ‘The Ocean’ and take a look.

I parked and walked to the swingbridge over the canal, which takes a footpath and bridleway allowing to residents to reach their homes across the fields. It was very quiet with just the regular dog walkers, joggers, runners and other oddballs milling about. Much too busy for my liking. I stood for a few minutes looking westwards down the canal towards the new railway bridge. Immediately an elderly man came up and said ‘You’ve missed it!’. He then told his young granddaughter to show me the picture she’d just taken of the kingfisher perched on the canal wall about thirty feet from where we were standing. She was terribly excited and I congratulated her as it was great start for her use of a new bridge camera that she’d been given for her half-term trip from Hampshire staying with the grandparents. Grandad had his own Canon dslr, which his grandson was in the process of using, so photography was definitely in the family.

I didn’t see the kingfisher nor did it come while I hung around for a bit longer. I took this picture of the train crossing the bridge as I wanted a record of the work that was done over five days between last Christmas and the New Year. Network Rail closed this mainline from Bristol to Birmingham so that the old bridge, which had been built over the then derelict and abandoned canal from Saul Junction to Stroud, could be replaced. It was their contribution to the regeneration of this section of the canal. The old bridge was one of two ‘blockages’ to the physical re-connection of the canal to the Inland Waterway network at Saul Junction via the Gloucester to Sharpness canal. The other problem barrier is the M5 motorway, which also was built over the abandoned canal in the 1960s. Soon it too will have a new section of canal underneath it, using the current path of the River Frome’, to allow canal boats to have a passage under the motorway.

I think the name for ’The Ocean’ was for this small stretch of canal leading to the original bridge, where a turning area for barges and a small wharf for loading was created forming a wider section of canal or ‘ocean’. I think once the canal has been refilled in late March dredging of this area will begin and boats will be able to pass about a mile further to wards Saul. There is a missing mile to be rebuilt where farmland had taken over the path of the canal, which might entail another year or two of work before it is fully open.

This was my Blip of 'The Ocean' in 2017 with nearly the same viewpoint.